Google’s Search Share in China Continues to Drop (GOOG, BIDU, SOHU)
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to lose share in the Chinese search market. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Google claimed just 16.7% of search revenue, compared with the 78.3% share claimed by China’s homegrown search engine Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ:…
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to lose share in the Chinese search market. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Google claimed just 16.7% of search revenue, compared with the 78.3% share claimed by China’s homegrown search engine Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU). The third-largest share of revenue went to Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU), which claimed 2.7% of search revenues.
Baidu’s share grew by 0.1% sequentially, while Google’s share fell by -0.5%. Sohu’s share increased by 0.5% sequentially.
Google’s declining share of the search market can be traced back to the company’s decision to move its servers to Hong Kong following a disagreement with the mainland government. Before the move, Google claimed about 36% of China’s search revenue.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
